Сегодня я бегаю медленнее, чем вчера.

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Breakdown of Сегодня я бегаю медленнее, чем вчера.

• бегать: to run
• вчера: yesterday
• сегодня: today

Questions & Answers about Сегодня я бегаю медленнее, чем вчера.

Why is it бегаю and not бегу in this sentence?

Russian has two different verbs for “to run”:

• бегать – multidirectional / habitual: to run in general, to run back and forth, to run regularly.
  • 1st person singular: я бегаю
• бежать – unidirectional: to run in one specific direction, usually one concrete movement that is happening now.
  • 1st person singular: я бегу

In Сегодня я бегаю медленнее, чем вчера, бегаю suggests a general or repeated action today (e.g. “my runs today are slower than yesterday’s”).

If you wanted to focus on one specific run that is in progress right now, you would more likely say:

• Сегодня я бегу медленнее, чем вчера. – Right now I’m running more slowly than I did yesterday (in a similar situation).

Does я бегаю mean “I run” or “I am running”? How should I think of this tense?